Promotional booklet created for the Norburn Hospital & Clinic, Inc., the first medical center to exist at 509 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, North Carolina, predating Mission Hospital. Norburn moved the original entrance which existed in its days as a college to 509 Biltmore Avenue where it exists today. Norburn also separately bought adjoining lands around the hospital in order to create the extensive acreage which Mission Hospitals inherited. All of this came about as the result of the visions of Dr. Charles S. Norburn. 

These visions originated during Dr. Charles Norburn's time at the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in both 1920, when he studied for four months directly under Dr. Charles Mayo, and 1922, when he was a visiting fellow. Dr. Charles S. Norburn was nominated by personal letter from the Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy, William C. Braisted, to Dr. Charles Mayo himself. He also returned to Mayo as a visiting fellow in 1922. This letter, as well as course notes from 1920 and an announcement of his visiting fellowship in 1922 are in the record at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. There are no records at Mayo of anyone else from Norburn Hospital other than Dr. Charles S. Norburn having ever attended there. It was Dr. Charles Norburn's dream to create a top teaching institution similar to the one the Mayo brothers created, and that he could do this with his younger brother Russell who was still in undergraduate studies at this time and not yet in medical school.

While taking steps to help his vision become reality and awaiting Russell's graduation from medical school, in 1924 Dr. Charles S. Norburn became head of surgery at Meriwether Hospital, the top hospital in Asheville at the time. Brought into that position by its president, Dr. Eugene Glenn, Dr. Glenn proposed that he and Dr. Charles Norburn start such a clinic together as equal partners. Dr. Charles Norburn turned this offer down, as well as many others, while waiting for his brother Russell to complete medical school. When he did so, before founding Norburn, Dr. Charles Norburn brought Russell onto the staff at Meriwether Hospital to help him gain experience and in the hope that he could train him as a surgeon.

The Norburn Hospital was founded in 1928 by Dr. Charles S. Norburn and his brother Dr. Russell L. Norburn. Norburn's first location was at 346 Montford Avenue, and in 1946 it was moved to 509 Biltmore Avenue where it existed until 1950, when its name was changed to Victoria Hospital (for the road that runs alongside) in preparation for its merger with Mission to create Memorial Mission, to create a central medical center for Western North Carolina. Although his contribution has been largely forgotten, Dr. Charles S. Norburn's contribution to this medical center forever changed the medical landscape of Western North Carolina. It was Asheville, North Carolina, where a surgeon fit for the President of the United States was to bring his talents, to the benefit of Western North Carolinians.

Dr. Charles Norburn returned to Asheville in 1923 after a storied medical career. Following his graduation from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1917--including graduate studies in surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Dr. Charles S. Norburn is in the record at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School as having attended graduate courses there, but his younger brother Russell is not, contrary to other reports), and the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Charles S. Norburn was nominated in 1923 as surgeon to the President of the United States (POTUS) by the United States Surgeon General (vid. the numerous 1923 newspaper announcements at that time).

In 1932 Dr. Charles Norburn mentored the then-16-year-old Logan Robertson, son of the president of the Champion Paper & Fibre Company in Canton, who wanted to study medicine (for a direct quote by Dr. Logan Robertson to this effect vid.Capitalism for kids : growing up to be your own boss, Karl Hess, 2005, pg. 170). The two eventually became best friends, and Dr. Charles Norburn was Dr. Logan Robertson's best man at his wedding in 1938. Dr. Robertson eventually came to Norburn in 1946 as Vice-President, while Dr. Charles Norburn had always maintained the position of President since its incorporation in 1930. This friendship between Dr. Charles Norburn and Dr. Robertson was the basis of the connection between Norburn and Champion, whose president, Reuben Robertson, played a prominent role on Norburn's newly-formed board beginning in 1946.

At that time, Norburn had the best equipment of any hospital in Western North Carolina before merging with Mission Hospital, as can be seen from this booklet, and noted by Dr. Willis J. Gray, Director of Jennings Memorial Hospital in Detroit. Dr. Gray stated, "The physical facilities at Norburn Hospital are considerably superior to the average small hospital" (vid. The Asheville Citizen-Times, October 8, 1950, pg. 4, second column from left, middle of the page.) Since Dr. Gray was hired for his analysis by the Asheville Hospital Association, led by Mission in its quest for a medical center, there can be no doubt as to the veracity of this assertion; indeed, it is why Mission Hospital negotiated with Norburn extensively to obtain it.

Although Norburn was a member of the Asheville Hospital Association, it was initially reluctant to get behind the movement of Mission to consolidate. The reasons were many; the main ones being that the Treasurer in charge of the finances of Norburn did not want to relinquish control of the hospital accounting to new and critical oversight, but also Dr. Charles Norburn had a lifelong vision for a medical center and he felt he was the best person to see that vision to fruition. In any case, Norburn was leading its own charge. In retrospect, we can see how the medical community of Asheville and, indeed, all of Western North Carolina, benefited from Dr. Charles S. Norburn's vision.

Dr. Charles Norburn was, throughout Norburn's history until Dr. C. Marshall Lee joined in April of 1947, the only surgeon at Norburn who was accredited by the American College of Surgeons, a fellowship which he received in 1929, ten days before the stock market collapse and the Great Depression began. From 1929 until its dissolution in 1950, no other members at Norburn had this accreditation except for Dr. Lee, which was the only accreditation available at the time to signify someone had bona fide surgical credentials. Unfortunately, Dr. Russell Norburn was not able to become accredited as a surgeon by the American College of Surgeons as Dr. Charles Norburn had hoped, and was unable to join him in the operating room. Thus, from 1928 until 1947 when Dr. Lee joined, Dr. Charles S. Norburn was the only surgeon at Norburn, and he alone performed all surgeries in that time period. This greatly depressed Dr. Charles Norburn, and he lamented the loss of his dream for his brother to join him in the operating room, and to not be the final leader in the medical landscape of Western North Carolina. While Dr. Charles S. Norburn was an undeniably talented and skilled surgeon, nepotism played a large role in the loss of his dream, for which he had turned down many opportunities for a clinic that would not have his brother as partner.

While Norburn hired many specialists of excellent caliber in its later years, what set Dr. Charles S. Norburn apart was the fact that he was a surgeon in all areas, a general surgeon, including the brain and skull (vid. White House Records Office Files, Truman Administration, Virge McClure. Available at the National Archives https://catalog.archives.gov).

Through the founding of the Norburn Hospital in 1928, Dr. Charles Norburn raised the standard of all medical facilities in Asheville and brought other nationally recognized physicians to the region; and through his generosity and devotion to human life, he increased medical knowledge and patient care by providing Western North Carolina, at no cost, with one of the largest and most complete medical libraries in the U.S. (later inherited by Memorial Mission).

The medical library that Dr. Charles S. Norburn alone owned and amassed, beginning in the late 1910s (when he was serving as a Lieutenant Surgeon in WWI on the U.S.S. Connecticut, the U.S.S. Comfort along with Dr. John A. Lee, pioneer of the X-Ray, the U.S.S. Mercy, and at the U.S. Naval Hospital at League Island, Philadelphia) and continuing up to 1950 (and provided at Norburn Hospital) was one of the largest and most complete in the entire United States--several thousand volumes--and Dr. Charles Norburn had made this library free for use for all medical professionals in Western North Carolina, regardless of hospital affiliation. That is, at his own expense he made sure that all Western North Carolina medical professionals had the knowledge they needed to best care for their patients wherever they were.

Long before the internet, this library provided area physicians the most up to date medical information, in turn raising the quality of care for the people of Asheville and Western North Carolina. This was no doubt at least part of the reason that physicians who were outstanding in their respective fields moved to Asheville to join Norburn. Norburn librarian Hattie McKay wrote in 1950, "Memorial Mission Hospital has indeed inherited a rare jewel." (vid. The Asheville Times, December 26, 1950. Another article in The Asheville Times on February 28, 1954, also details the extent of this collection.)

Mission used the original Norburn hospital building, which was the original Florence Stephenson Hall, and in the early 1980s this old Hall was torn down. A time capsule was found belonging to the Florence Stephenson Hall and was highlighted in the newspaper. However, Norburn's contribution was not mentioned--and has not been mentioned in many histories presented by Mission about the origins of their hospital--no doubt stemming originally from the disagreement that the Asheville Hospital Association had for a medical center versus the one had by Dr. Charles Norburn. A subtle reference to that original disagreement can be seen in a newspaper article where the Asheville Hospital Association said that their hope was that the entire community, “without exception,” would get behind their efforts (The Asheville Citizen-Times, Asheville, NC, 08-21-1946, Front Page, Col. 8, “TRACT IS DONATED FOR HOSPITAL BY MRS. SEELY”)--notably, at the time, Norburn was the only hospital in Asheville that was actively and very publicly expanding their hospital presence with numerous articles about the superiority of their equipment and facilities.

But clearly, that so much effort that took years for a merger to complete, and the extensive negotiations (which included Mission scrapping a site donated by Mrs. Fred Seely in Chunn's Cove), shows that Dr. Charles S. Norburn had, indeed, created an institution very desirable to all other Asheville Hospitals as embodied in the Asheville Hospital Association. It may not have been Asheville's version of the Mayo Clinic, but Norburn's impact on the city was profound. In those terms, Dr. Charles S. Norburn's vision, albeit in perhaps a different way than he had hoped, had been realized.

Susan Ingram Oleaga, Author